The "Carhartt Brown" version wears into a softer, more comfy pant than the other colors. Not sure why, but they are uber-comfy.

Given the overall durability of the pant, the ass seems to blow out prematurely. See butt bone patches above.

Otherwise, the pants help up pretty well considering how much I wore them. I wore them just about daily in the fall/winter of 2010 and the fall/winter of 2011. By 2012, the sit bone bits had blown out completely and then other rips started to emerge in the crotch and above the panel on the right leg.

Now that I'm in a work environment around other people, I can't do the ripped up/dirty/nasty jean thing every day, so these pants live at the river. I love slipping into them at nights by the fire.

I'd like to find a similar pant with a bit more fabric in butt, similar fabric with wide thighs, and "neutral" styling that I can wear at work. Patagonia has a promising pant.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Tough riding. The Liberty Lake Trail Loop is a mutha. I went counter-clockwise: coming up the part that I should've gone down. And I should've gone up the western-most trail. A good map is here.

Going up was too hard. It was steep, but I had to walk too much of it. Thinking on it: I guess that's a good shake up for me to realize how far out of shape I've fallen this summer, which makes rides like this less fun. Which is no good. So it's time to get a bit more hard riding in so I can enjoy these kinds of rides.

The Liberty Lake system is limited, but really nice, especially if you like lots of climbing. The middle trail down is a great, fast, not-too-technical descent. And he Loop trail down is crazy technical -- for me -- I crashed a couple times and had to walk through more sections than I'd like to admit.

DB talked about having a clipboard at CF to record times. If that happened, that will be the unofficial official. IN the meantime: comment with your time and story. DNF'ers: you too! There will be swag for DNF'ers this year.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

I'm finally figuring out how to run. I've tried on and off for years, but my knee did funny painful stuff. I talked to an M.D. buddy and he watched me run. We fixed it with warm up, special stretch routine, and post run icing. Plus, I'm running mostly on trails or grass.

Tonight's run was best ever: only about 2 miles, but it felt *good*. My goal has been to have a run that didn't suck, so to run and have it be good is a huge deal.

On the riding front: not enough to finish the MC this year. Not sure if I'll roll out or not. But if I do, I'll likely DNF at Liberty Lake or the Palouse highway.

I'm still trying to square this idea against my self-imposed requirement to just suffer it out. We'll see.